Do you EDMODO?

Our school "Geek Squad" introduced me to this fantastic way for my students to communicate with each other for educational purposes.  EDMODO is a free service, and requires each child to have a username and password, but they call all sign in by being invited from you, by giving them a group code to sign up, so you don't have to worry about each having an email address which can get crazy!

 

So far, I have used this site to give my students simple polls, that can later be used for data & graphing which we are studying right now. 

 

 

I could also create an assignment, where students have to submit it directly to me instead of just replying to a post.  This is an assignment turned in, the question was What is the difference between a fact and an opinion.  I have the ability to assign a grade and also leave a response to their answer.

 

  The post below was a picture of our caterpillars (which didn't show up for this snapshot), but you can see the student responses below it. 

 

Lastly, students are also able to create post!   That is where you have to set the guidelines, otherwise, they turn it into a mini Facebook!  Make it very clear that the site is used for educational purposes.

As you can see, my kids are STILL struggling with regrouping.  Sigh.... and most likely the others just copied the previous response.

  What I like about the site, is that it is easy to navigate through.  I have 2nd graders, and they log on and can respond to my assignments within minutes!  EDMODO is a great tool for teachers to network.  I  have my personal account and then the one I use for my classroom.  There is an app for your smartphones as well, which is where I took these pics from!  You should check it out!

MENTOR TEXT LINKY-language arts

Hello all!  I'm linking up with the Cuties again!  This week's topic is language arts. 

 

 

My book choice is VOICES IN THE PARK by Anthony Browne. 

 

 

It is an absolute perfect choice for teaching Point of View and Character Traits.  There are 4 very distinct "voices".  A little boy, his mother, a little girl, and her father and also the dogs. 

 

Each voice tells a story about a day in the park.  All four voices are in the park at the exact same time, but all have completely different perspectives of the days events.  This book is excellent for character traits, as the different points of view lend themselves to different analysis of the characters!  It was a hit in my room!  I had the kids list the traits they felt described each character and their point of view.  Many kids had connections to similar park experiences they have had.